Decent article, If I was on a travel site
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but how as the most populous, technologically dynamic, fastest growing country in the world do we get such banal, mundane skimpy articles about China, the Chinese section should be equivalent or larger than the US Section and European sections combined.
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just reading the Chinese blogsphere you should have an unending amount of source material or does the Economist not have any staff fluent in Chinese?

The article is really worth reading, especially considering how little I know about the Chinese republic and also how much I have managed to forget. China is a vibrant nation no doubt, but with the Communist regime, there is little information that percolates outside, and that little is also censored to a degree at least.
I was amused by the comments . A few comments are actually about the roads,and do inform. The Chinese feel justifiably proud about the achievments of their government, even excited whole heartedly.The rest of the world seems not so amused, again justifiably, because there is certainly a sense in the world outside China that the road links and infrastructure build can also be used for motives that are not exacctly developmental.This may be justifiable, but then no Big Nation on the face of the earth can claim that they havent ever sinned in similar way. Only argument could be on the scale of the sin.
White men in USA(maybe 100 or 300 years back), The great Britain(At least pre-1940s) ,Russia or the erstwhile USSR, Australia(I faintly remember that there were original Australians and they were marginalised?), The South Africa, Germany(Hitler) , and even India , where I come from could be said to have had territorial motives behind some of the infrastrtucture growth.That doent mean that nation states are bad for people, or infrastructure growth should not happen.

China should not mind too much about those criticisms with coloured spectacles,more and better motorways or railways across XiZang or other areas in China will help people a great deal in their life and work.

The reason for the [sic] is that the sign doesn't show a distance yet because the road isn't built, it's nothing to do with the spelling. Here is a photo of the sign in question (if I'm allowed to post a link):

The route from Sichuan (G318/G317) is actually 2 routes. The southern G318 has richer cultural sites while the northern G317 has more pristine scenery.

The route from Yunnan (G214) starts of around Dali and merges with the Sichuan route in Markam. This route in interesting in that it crosses the 3 parallel gorge area.

There is also a "hidden" route which follows Nu river until it reaches Tibet. This route in second only to the Xinjiang-Xizang route in terms of insanity. Beyond Bingzhongluo, the route degrades into a single lane dirty road hanging by the cliff with the raging river below. The route itself is prone to earthquakes and landslides. One area is nicknamed "Great rock fall" which has a giant steam of fine rocks hanging by the mountain slope at about 50-60 degrees. Whenever wind blows, the rocks roll down to engulf the road and any passing vehicles below.

> Global Times, a Beijing newspaper, said travelling to Tibet was like “seeking the primal freedom of life”

Citing it without adding certain biased bywords like "a populist newspaper" or "a party mouse-peace" is a sign that you understand the subtleties in Chinese news business. Some of its articles are from highest quality in many aspects, not only for Chinese people. I wished there would be better translations out there to let more people understand China, instead of fearing it.

I agree.
It's the primal freedom of spiritual life that the Tibetans are seeking, not some greedy materialistic society following ideological pheromones under the name of Communism with Chinese characteristics

Nah, go ahead and keep them. I'm sure life will be much more pleasant for the rest of us if you keep obsessing over your position as 'best' while we enjoy ourselves even in 'worse' countries. Glad to hear that some arbitrary rank makes you happy.

Your nose has a problem if that's what you smelt. It says nothing about that. Chinese are so concerned, that Americans are concerned with 'splitting apart China'. In the end, it's a ridiculous cycle that is the standard argument for anyone that has their head up their butt.

Except for a few snobbish digs and quips here and there, an almost apolitical Economist article on tourism in China is being marred by anti-Chinese faction posters. It’s truly uncalled for.

Visiting Xizang by driving from say Beijing indeed calls for brave souls. As the largest auto buying nation, China is also among the newest auto-rized countries. One has to admit, the auto culture of driving courtesy and etiquette has yet to be fully developed in China. Death toll of auto accidents in China is high, higher than the annual 30,000 or so deaths caused by gun shots in USA.

Unless the purpose was to enjoy the road scene and the driving experience along the long stretch way, a far better way is to take the Qing-Zang railway from Beijing to Lhasa in the modern, bright and compartment zed coach train. The air tight although not pressurized coach is smooth ride with individual oxygen aid whenever needed. It offers literally “breathe taking” panoramic views of pristine tundra pastures and then some.

The 40 some hours ride on this railway engineering marvel is well worth the time it took to get there. Or, if Xizang is your only destination of interest, take up flying from Beijing. It’s only a few hours away.

"individual oxygen aid", lol, guess what, I get an idea, if Bismarck888 goes for a trip to Tibet then I will remind him to use that, he once said how dangerous the killer mosquitoes in tropic country, he should know Tibet is 1000% bad in natural conditions than in tropic country, and that's why I think there's not many migration from the rest of China to Tibet, I can imagine the killer mosquitoes from Indonesia are just nothing or harmless in Tibet, they will drop dead, DROP DEAD literally I mean, because of lack of oxygen in Tibet, lol, then another idea on HOW TO ELIMINATE MOSQUITOES ON EARTH: just send them to Tibet!!! and once again another idea on hot to erase all the cockroaches... lol

Tibet is not nearly as dangerous as some pars of Indonesia. As a cat, I think you would rather live in the Muslim parts, the Christian parts can sometimes be very dangerous for cats, because they ear cats.

But the most dangerous country of cats, particularly for Chinese Cats is Burma, where the evil anti-Chinese people called the tocharian lives.

Tibet is not nearly as dangerous as some pars of Indonesia. As a cat, I think you would rather live in the Muslim parts, the Christian parts can sometimes be very dangerous for cats, because they ear cats.

But the most dangerous country of cats, particularly for Chinese Cats is Burma, where the evil anti-Chinese people called the tocharian lives.]

How exciting! Imagine the commercial opportunities - gas stations, fast food places, budget hotels along the way. Eventually new towns will spring up along the route, offering more luxurious hotels, playgrounds, restaurants, retail centers, services(hospitals, schools, doctors, dentists) and houses to serve the local population. Very exciting.

I applaud your editorial of 22 June, in which you exposed the insidious manner in which the Japanese parliament and government had glossed over the crimes and genocides the Japanese Imperial Army had committed against the peoples of East Asia.

Your effort is to be commended and I hope you will extend it and apply it in an impartial and unbiased manner.

The crimes of Japan during World War II is but one of the crimes against humanity in recent history and it is not even the most serious.

Far more sinister are those committed by the whites against the non-whites, with the racial genocides carried out in America and Australia being the most systematic and thorough.

These are the most hideous crimes against humanity- surpassing, in scale and thoroughness, even Hitler's organized pogrom of the Jews and the Slavs. But while the whites react with anger and indignation to the massacres of their own kind, they continue to glorify and celebrate their genocidal achievements when their victims are non-Europeans.

We all should now wake up to the fact that the regimes thus established are illegal, immoral and illegitimate. For the sake of justice and legality, these criminal regimes must be abolished. Only then can a just "New World Order" prevail.

The South China Morning Post, having so bravely exposed the lies and deceit of the Japanese, should now take up this new task with added courage and vigour, and thus set a moral journalistic standard for the rest of the "Free Press" to follow.

I applaud your editorial of 22 June, in which you exposed the insidious manner in which the Japanese parliament and government had glossed over the crimes and genocides the Japanese Imperial Army had committed against the peoples of East Asia.

Your effort is to be commended and I hope you will extend it and apply it in an impartial and unbiased manner.

The crimes of Japan during World War II is but one of the crimes against humanity in recent history and it is not even the most serious.

Far more sinister are those committed by the whites against the non-whites, with the racial genocides carried out in America and Australia being the most systematic and thorough.

These are the most hideous crimes against humanity- surpassing, in scale and thoroughness, even Hitler's organized pogrom of the Jews and the Slavs. But while the whites react with anger and indignation to the massacres of their own kind, they continue to glorify and celebrate their genocidal achievements when their victims are non-Europeans.

We all should now wake up to the fact that the regimes thus established are illegal, immoral and illegitimate. For the sake of justice and legality, these criminal regimes must be abolished. Only then can a just "New World Order" prevail.

The South China Morning Post, having so bravely exposed the lies and deceit of the Japanese, should now take up this new task with added courage and vigour, and thus set a moral journalistic standard for the rest of the "Free Press" to follow.

Very good article. It refreshs the memory of my train ride trip from Urumqi to Lanzhou then from Xining to Lhasa. I also visited Qinghai Lake and took a short boat cruise in it.
For those who doesn't want the challenge of driving up to Tibet (some part of the route looks like the surface of the moon), a train ride from Xining is a good relaxing alternative.
The train tracks actually run along Qing/Zang road (G109) on good part of the route.
Driving from Lhasa to S.E. Nyingchi through the beautiful #318 will be a even greater experience.

Your lack of 3G coverage indicates the high efficiency of UK's free market economy; the Chinese 3G problem, on the other hand, is the result of the bureaucratic command economy of the Chinese Communist Party :)

China is awesome, in the classical sense of the word, this article does well at conveying that. Driving on Chinese roads is always an exciting experience, for an American (my father-in-law lets me drive!). Maybe we should drive to Tibet someday!